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TES: The largest network of teachers in the world
Portions not contributed by visitors are Copyright 2018 Tangient LLC
TES: The largest network of teachers in the world
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Table of Contents
HERE IS A STRATEGIC PLAN TEMPLATE
FOR INTRODUCING BLOGS AND WIKIS
IN TEACHING AND LEARNING
Click here to download the template for use in your organisation.
A good strategic plan for the introduction of blogs and wikis in teaching and learning should provide a clear explanation of how one or more strategic goals are to be achieved by an organisation. It typically outlines long-term goals and details the specific strategies and programmatic goals that are to be pursued. Areas of risk are analysed and specific strategies for overcoming those risks are adopted. The strategic planning process is iterative and maps a clear path between a present condition and a vision for the future. Revisiting the Strategic Plan to review accomplishments against documented objectives, establishes a feedback loop that can then influence future planning and decision making.
The broader strategic concerns are:
• Who are we?
• Where are we?
• Where do we want to go with blogs and wikis (or not go) and why?
• How do we get there?
• How do we know when we get there?
Planning starts with an assessment of the current teaching and learning situation. It begins with a couple of basic questions: 1) Who are we? and 2) Where are we? In this regard, strengths and weaknesses are important to articulate. In addition, the existing foundation to be built upon needs to be understood. Understanding the status quo is a precursor to implementing change.
>1 STRATEGIC PLANNING METHODOLOGY
1.1 Getting Starteda. How do we identify and engage the appropriate people who need to participate in the Strategic Plan development effort
b. Have the right stakeholder organizations been engaged in the process,
c. Are executives of participating organizations knowledgeable, supportive and involved in this effort?
d. How do we define the roles and responsibilities required to ensure successful completion of the Strategic Plan? (e.g., strategic planning
committee, committee chair, strategic plan review team, etc.)
e. How do we determine who is responsible for the Strategic Planning process? (e.g., who will manage/facilitate its progress and completion?
f. How do we decide who the plan should be prepared for and how do we tailor the plan to meet their expectations and/or requirements? (e.g., who is the target audience and what are the issues that will gain their attention
and support?)
g. How do we identify and enlist the assistance of a champion?
1.2 Preliminary Planning
a. What is going to be our adopted planning approach? (e.g., are we going to complete the exercise internally, or use consultants? If we want to use consultants, can we identify funding and do we have a contracting mechanism that will work within our timeframe? What brainstorming approaches will we use?)
b. What time constraints exist that directly impact plan completion?
c. Is there a bigger picture that this plan fits into?
d. Do we already have a Strategic Plan and is it relevant today?
f. What resources are available to support the planning process? (e.g., staff, equipment or funding from internal sponsors and external participating entities)
g. Does the planning itself need to be split into phases? (e.g., calendar year, fiscal year, milestone, long or short term)
h. What are the roadblocks?
i. What are the key success factors for us?
j. What are the predominant pitfalls for us? (e.g., lack of funding, limited resources, lack of available time)
k. What collaboration tools are available to facilitate that planning process? (e.g., list-serves, video conferencing, web meeting systems, or Wiki web site) Are these in place or do they need to be developed?
1.3. Strategizing
a. How do we “get runs on the board”, (Some things are easier to accomplish than other things, based on time and money, and they may have a high profile to quickly win support).
b. What limitations do we want to impose on the planning process in terms of time? (e.g., limiting the planning to realistic goals achievable in the next 3 years, limiting the time spent actually planning to say 3 months.)
c. What are the most realistic goals for our situation?
d. How do we market our efforts? (e.g., workshops, seminars, conferences, webcasts, podcasts, flyers, etc.)
e. What are the logical marketing opportunities?
1.4 Authoring
a. Who are the authors of the plan? (e.g., who is ultimately responsible for crafting the content and populating the template?
b. Who should review draft versions?
c. Who reviews and approves the final version?
d. Should an external party review the strategic plan?
e. Stylistically, should the plan be detailed and comprehensive or generalized and minimalist (or somewhere in between)?
f. Do we have technology for developing the document collaboratively and is it feasible to work this way? (e.g., a Wiki website, which allows users to easily add and edit content and is especially suited for collaborative writing.)
1.5 Monitoring
a. Who has oversight and review authority for plan content?
b. What measurements of performance will we use?
c. How often will we review progress? ( e.g., monthly, quarterly, biannually, annually)
d. Who is responsible for measuring progress? (e.g., stakeholders, external funding source)
>2. CURRENT SITUATION
Planning starts with an assessment of the current situation. It begins with a couple of basic questions: 1) Who are we? and 2) Where are we? In this regard, strengths and weaknesses are important to articulate.2.1 Who are we?
a. Who are we?
b. Who else should we consider as being a stakeholder?
c. Which, if any, stakeholders should be included in our strategic planning efforts?
d. Who are the key external stakeholders?
e. What are the common interests of the stakeholder community we represent and how can we best represent them?
f. What are our values? (e.g., do we strongly value an open source approach? Do we support inter-operability as a notion? Is vendor lock-in a good thing or a bad thing?)
g. Are we part of a bigger organization?
h. What are the goals of the broader organization? How will our planning efforts dovetail with the broader organizational objectives? (Ensuring that goals are compatible ensures greater likelihood of success.)
i. What is the mission statement of the broader organization?
j. How does this Strategic plan support those broader organizational goals?
2.2 Strengths and Weaknesses
Part of understanding “who we are and where we are” is an assessment of strengths and weaknesses. Primarily, this is from an internal perspective, although theremay be some relevant external factors. Organizational strengths such astechnologies, people, and capabilities, may be distributed and separately controlled by different agencies or groups. Getting the commitment to harness those strengths
around a common goal may be a significant challenge; however, it may also be anopportunity waiting to be realized. Strengths help position an organization to take advantage of opportunities, whereas weaknesses may make the organization vulnerable to threats, or less able to exploit opportunities.
a. What are our strengths? (e.g., experienced staff, funding, authority, political support, communications infrastructure for collaboration, technical skills, marketing skills, etc.)
b. What are our weaknesses? (e.g., lack of staff, lack of funding, lack of expertise, and lack of any of the other things listed under strengths; also, wildly divergent needs, disagreement on goals and priorities, etc.)
2.3 Opportunities and Threats
a. What opportunities are made available by implementing blogs and wikis in teaching and learning.
d. What opportunities exist for coordinating resources across other organizations?
e. If we do not implement blogs and wikis in teaching and learning, what are the threats?
>3 VISION AND GOALS
The overarching strategic goal is to implement blogs and wikis in teaching and learning. The planning process at this stage is not about making new strategic goals. It is about defining the steps that are necessary to implement strategic goalswith success. And yet, it is important to make sure participants in the process understand and agree that the goals are important and relevant. Part of building this support is effectively identifying problems that will occur if you do not move towards achieving the implementation of blogs and wikis in teaching and learning and the benefits if you do. The emphasis in this section is on articulating the programmatic goals that support the overarching strategic goal(s). The emphasis herein is not on capturing all of the costs associated with achieving the desired end-state, but there should be some boundaries set with regard to what is realistic. It is good for the goals to be challenging rather than trivial, but often planning falters when there is a substantial gap between expectations and what is feasible. The programmatic goals should be delineated in terms of short-term and long-term time horizons, and driven by realistic resource availability. This section is for the purpose of reviewing and understanding strategic goals which the plan is intended to support. Setting strategic goals is separate from the planning process, but articulating programmatic goals to achieve the strategic goals is an important part of the process. The questions in this section should be useful in articulating and refining the shared understanding of the target goals to be implemented, both strategic and programmatic.
3.1 Vision
a) What are we trying to accomplish?
b) What is the boundary (project limit) of what we want to achieve?
c) Are our goals measurable? How do we know when we have achieved them?
d) Are our goals clear, concise and attainable?
e) Have our goals been prioritized, and which ones are most critical to then success of this effort?
f) Where do we want to be in the near-term (i.e., one year from now), in terms of accomplishments? Where do we want to be in the long-term (i.e., five years from now)?
g) What should our mission statement be, given our strategic goals?
3.2 Strategic Goal
Define a strategic goal: e.g. To implement an infrastructure that will provide support for the implementation of blogs and wikis in teaching and learning.
This is the overarching objective that ultimately supports the notion of adopting blogs and wikis for teaching and learning. In discussing and understanding the strategic objective, a set of supportive goals are developed. These become the programmatic goals.
a. What does the stated strategic goal mean to the organisation?
c. Do we understand and agree with the stated goal?
d. Do we have other strategic goals that are relevant to implementing blogs and wikis in teaching and learning?
3.3 Programmatic Goals
Given the strategic goals, the next step is to articulate the programmatic goals that are intended to help drive the implementation program. For the planning process to succeed, it is important that the programmatic goals be achievable and compatible with one another. Examples of programmatic goals may be:
>4 REQUIREMENTS
To implement blogs and wikis in teaching and learning it is essential to assess the condition of the existing infrastructure as well as the requirements to implement the blogs and wikis in teaching and learning. The purpose of this section is to explore how these elements are sufficient or deficient.4.1 Inventory of Existing Infrastructure and Suitability Assessment
Going beyond what was addressed in the section on Current Situation (on “Who we are?”), this section presumes a more detailed and technical assessment of existing infrastructure. An assessment of existing infrastructure will inform the requirements analysis on what is needed.
a. What is the state of our technology infrastructure? (I.e., hardware, software, networking/communications, etc.)
b. Are standards in place, and if so, which ones?
c. Are we in compliance with standards? If not, are they appropriate for us?
d. What teaching content do we have?
e. Is what we have sufficient to support blogs and wikis in teaching and learning?
4.2 Technology Requirements
This section of the Strategic Plan aims to define the technological architecture required . This should not be looked at in a vacuum. It is essential to determine how it fits within the broader architectural environment of Information Technology (IT) within your organisation. The broader role of IT is to provide guidance, services, and infrastructure to support a full range of business requirements.
c. What system architectures are needed? (e.g., servers, desktop clients, web browser clients, networks, etc.)
d. What applications need to be supported?
e. What interoperability specifications need to be followed, if any?
f. What overarching enterprise architecture plans need to be followed (and at what level of compliance)? (e.g., is there a service-oriented architecture?)
g. Do we have legacy systems that need to be integrated?
4.3 Resource Requirements
This section of the Strategic Plan aims to itemize in detail the human and other resources that are needed to implement blogs and wikis in teaching and learning.
a. What people expertise is needed?
b. Are the skills required already available within the organization or organizational group defined by this Strategic Plan?
c. Will staff need to be reassigned in order to support blogs and wikis in teaching and learning? (How realistic is this requirement?)
d. Will new staff need to be hired?
e. Are consultants needed?
f. Are voluntary resources available?
g. How much of their time is available?
4.4 Organizational Needs
This section of the Strategic Plan aims to identify any organizational transformation that might be needed to implement blogs and wikis in teaching and learning? For example, are there resources spread out across many departments that could be consolidated or more tightly aligned? Although it is a resource issue, the people availability and alignment to support the teaching and learning goal is an important consideration from an organizational standpoint. Likewise, what are the budgetary requirements and where will the funding come from? What opportunities exist for cost sharing?
a. Is the need for organizational change recognized?
b. Is it feasible to reorganize around the objective of an organisation wide intitiative
c. How would reorganization be perceived by management, staff, and other stakeholders?
d. What organizations have resources devoted to blogs and wikis in teaching and learning projects? Are these resources deployed in the most productive manner?
4.5 Executive Support
Executive support is essential for the successful implementation of any plan. Trying to operate ‘below the radar’ without executive support risks the cancellation of the program; and, it will clearly eliminate funding opportunities. To engage executives and win their support make sure they are part of the process.
a. How do you ensure that top management will care about blogs and wikis in teaching and learning? i.e., what’s in it for them? What be will be the ROI (Return On Investment).
b. What specific support do you need from executive management and do they understand this need?
c. How will you brief top management on your progress, and on issues that you encounter that they might help resolve?
4.6 Assessing Risk
a. What are the major external challenges that could possibly affect our efforts in a negative way?
b. What operational issues do we have and how can we overcome these?
c. How do we recognize and overcome obstacles?
d. What might happen if we do not anticipate obstacles?
4.7 Phasing and Milestones
a. Based on available time, and in consideration of resources, what is realistically achievable?
b. Are we looking at a phased implementation?
c. What are the target dates for the completion of each phase?
4.8 Marketing the Program
a. How do we get the word out? (e.g., press releases, articles, whitepapers, workshops, seminars, conferences, webcasts, podcasts, etc.)
b. Who is our target audience for messaging?
c. What events should we attend?
4.9 Measuring Success and Recalibration
A frequent assessment of progress is necessary in order to ensure that plan objectives are achieved in a timely manner. Correction(s) may be required as new information becomes available or new opportunities or threats develop.
a. What are the key critical success factors that would indicate to our stakeholders that we are on the path to success?
b. What performance metrics should we use? For each programmatic goal there should be one or more objectives along with a performance benchmark.
c. How do we capture cost-benefit data and determine return on investment (ROI), both quantitatively and qualitatively?
d. How often should we assess progress to determine if a revision of strategies is needed?